1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to automatic systems for orienting a plurality of elongated articles in a common head to toe orientation which are provided in a random head to toe orientation, and specifically to such a system for orienting and feeding a plurality of rounds of ammunition.
2. Prior Art
Most high rate of fire guns, such as are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,343, issued Apr. 30, 1968 to R. E. Chiabrandy et al, utilize rounds of ammunition without links which are fed to the feeder of the gun by an endless conveyor, such as is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,221, issued Feb. 25, 1969 to R. G. Kirkpatrick, from a storage system, such as is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,490, issued Jan. 25, 1977 to J. Dix et al. To provide quick aircraft loading turnaround time and reduce the possibility of foreign object damage by eliminating the use of linked ammunition on the flight line, the loading of the rounds into the storage systems, may use a bulk loader system, such as is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,704, issued Oct. 10, 1972 to L. F. Backus et al. This bulk loader system may be replenished with bulk packaged ammunition, rather than conventional linked ammunition, to provide significant life cycle cost savings by reduction of required storage area, lower shipping and munitions costs, and lower net manpower costs. Bulk ammunition, for example, 20 mm rounds, is available in two configurations: (1) Ammunition packaged two hundred rounds per shipping container and incorporating cardboard dunnage both in sheet form to separate the rounds from all sides of the container and in the form of tubes which respectively encase each individual projectile. The full container weighs approximately 140 pounds and each round is alternately oriented to provide maximum packing density. (2) Loose bulk ammunition, without cardboard, as unfired rounds and cleared rounds from previous firing missions.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a system for automatically transferring bulk and loose ammunition, with or without cardboard tubes on the projectiles, to a storage system, with all rounds oriented in the same direction and any tubes removed.
Article handling systems, in addition to those previously mentioned, are found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,820, issued Feb. 6, 1979 to J. E. Clemens; U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,659, issued Mar. 27, 1973 to S. S. Aidlin et al; U.S. Pat. No. 2,406,176, issued Aug. 20, 1946 to R. W. Vergobbi; U.S. Pat. No. 2,377,431, issued June 5, 1945 to E. E. Lakso; U.S. Pat. No. 2,362,517, issued Nov. 14, 1944 to J. H. Woodberry; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,282,610, issued Oct. 22, 1918 to W. I. Macomber.
A feature of this invention is a system including a buffer storage means for receiving rounds of ammunition, means for receiving therefrom the rounds in either of two orientations and for aligning them into a common orientation.